Business & Economy

What is a Christian Vision For Economic Life?

Nathan McLellan

This article is the second in a series by Nathan McLellan on a Christian vision for economics. Nathan is completing a Ph.D. in Christian ethics at Southern Methodist University. He holds a master’s degree in economics from Massey University and master’s degree in theology from Regent College. He was formerly the Head of Research at the Marketplace Institute Regent College and an economist at the New Zealand Treasury. He is the author of research on economic growth, productivity, and business cycles. He is also a Research Fellow at the New Zealand Maxim Institute.

The previous article (What is Capitalism?)
suggested that capitalism is not only an economic system, but also an ideology
or mindset that is based on a particular understanding of the human person and
society. The goal of this article is to present a Christian vision for economic
life and to challenge capitalism's understanding of the human person and
society by addressing the question: what is a Christian vision for economic
life? In other words, this article will provide an overall framework for
viewing economic life—one that the author hopes the vast majority of Christians
can agree upon—but not a detailed institutional and policy agenda (where there
is likely to be legitimate differences of opinion among Christians).

The Christian scriptures present a very
different understanding of the human person and society, and, flowing from
this, a different understanding of economic life, than that offered by
capitalism. Rather than an autonomous individual, the scriptures present the
human person as embedded in a series of relationships with others: with God,
with other persons, and with the rest of creation. For example, in the opening
chapter of Genesis, we see humans communing with God, with one another, and
also relating to the rest of creation. Owing
to the relational orientation of the Christian scriptures, the biblical
conception of freedom differs markedly to that of capitalism. Rather than
freedom from the other, the biblical
understanding of freedom is primarily freedom for the other: for God, for other humans, and for the rest of
creation. Bonhoeffer captures this notion of freedom superbly when he writes:

Freedom
is a relationship between two persons. Being free means
'being-free-for-the-other', because I am bound to the other. Only by being in
relation with the other am I free.[1]

Personhood is found in relationship with
others and, hence, a person cannot be understood apart from society, nor
society apart from the individual person, thereby avoiding the extremes of
individualism, on the one hand, and collectivism, on the other.

Within this relational context, God has
commanded humans: "To be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and
subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over
every living creature that moves on the ground." (Gen. 1:28). Sometimes called
the "cultural mandate," this command calls on humans to "make something of the
world" in which God has placed them.[2] In other words, humans are called to be stewards: to take the gifts that have
been entrusted to them by God and, through the effort of work, to cultivate
these gifts so that they become more productive.

The vocational task—to be fruitful and
increase in number, to rule and subdue the earth—suggests an environment of
plenitude. The creation account in Genesis suggests that provision has been
made to meet human needs, albeit that the creation needs to be cultivated in
order for these needs to be met. This still requires humans to make decisions
about where to allocate resources in order to meet human needs and wants. In
this sense, humans still face the reality of scarcity. However, this contrasts
with capitalism's understanding of scarcity that contends "no one has enough."[3] A Christian vision for economic life
must ultimately reject the notion that the human person is comprised of
unlimited wants that can never fully be satisfied. Instead, it embraces the
notion that human fulfillment can be found in relationship with others in and
through Jesus Christ. Therefore, the human person cannot be reduced to a
"consumer": as a human one must consume, but to consume does not define what it
means to be human. Moreover, given that God has created a world in which there
are enough resources to meet everyone's needs, that poverty still exists is a
result of current institutions, policy settings, and human behavior.[4]

The Christian scriptures also recognize
the importance of place in the fulfillment of the cultural mandate: in the
creation narrative, humans are placed within the cosmos; Israel is given a specific
land as a gracious gift from YHWH; and Jesus comes to a particular people, in a
particular time, in a particular
place. In contrast, capitalism pays little attention to the role of "place" in
economic life, and neoclassical economics has reinforced this tendency. In this
connection, Shuman rightly notes:

For
traditional economists and their critics, place was beside the point. The basic
unit of analysis for microeconomics was the firm, and for macroeconomics the
nation. Community, a level of organization somewhere in between, didn't really
fit.[5]

"Place," then, is viewed neutrally: a
blank canvas, or a shuffleboard upon which pieces can move around with ease. Place
is important in as much as labour and capital, encouraged by the ideology of
capitalism, move to those "places" where it can achieve the highest rate of
return (i.e., to earn the highest salary/wage or profit). In comparison, giving
due attention to place means taking seriously the unique locations, histories,
traditions, and practices within which persons and communities continue to be
formed.

The relational orientation that is found
in the opening creation narratives is maintained throughout Scripture, from
Israel's vocation to be a light to the nations, to Jesus' summary of the Law,
to its final pages, where the vision of the new heaven and the new earth and
the new Jerusalem, which has come down from heaven, is one of shalom (wholeness and peace): a picture
of relational harmony between God, humanity, and the rest of creation. Although
it is God who will ultimately bring this relational vision to its consummation,
even in the presence of sin at the present time, humans are called to partner
with God in working towards this end.

In the passages of Scripture that deal
explicitly with economic life, the emphasis on relationship can be seen
readily. For example, the Jubilee laws (Leviticus 25), which make family land
inalienable and put limits on the unequal distribution of land (which would
have been the principal form of productive capital in ancient Israel), are
intended to remind Israel of her covenant relationship with YHWH and to support
Israel's societal clan structure.[6] Hence, concerning the latter, Wright
contends:

The
primary purpose of the jubilee was to preserve the socioeconomic fabric of
multiple-household land tenure and the comparative equality and independent
viability of the smallest family-plus-land units. In other words, the jubilee
was intended for the survival and welfare of the families in Israel.[7]

Economic institutions are intended to
support the relational orientation of life in general; economic life is
subordinated to an overarching relational understanding of life, for "when
Jesus lays down the overarching moral principles of 'love God and love your
neighbour,' he is pointing to the priority of relational over financial wealth,
for love is a quality of relationships."[8] Or as Newbigin puts it, whereas
capitalism enthrones an [erroneous] notion of freedom and socialism an abstract
notion of equality, "what is fundamental [to the Christian understanding of
life] is relatedness."[9]

Various authors, from diverse
Christian traditions, have worked this overarching Christian narrative into a
more systematic form. For example, from a Roman Catholic perspective, John Paul
II has highlighted the primacy of relationships in his personalist account of
economic life.[10] Likewise,
from an evangelical protestant perspective, Schluter and Lee have emphasized
the importance of relationships in their political philosophy of "relationalism."[11]
In addition, the understanding of economic life that emerges from the Christian
scriptures also has resonances with some "secular" thinkers, although they
would not build their argument from a biblical foundation.[12]

In an attempt to draw out the main points
of difference between capitalism and a view of economic life that emerges from
a Christian perspective, the table below summarizes some of the main points
from the foregoing discussion. (Some of the points listed in this table are discussed
in more detail in two forthcoming articles). Yet the essential difference
between capitalism and a Christian perspective of economic life can be reduced
to saying that the former has a truncated or distorted view of personhood. The
human is viewed as an autonomous being—she is "an island unto herself," unless
she voluntarily chooses to engage with others—with the result that society is
seen simply as a collection of atomized individuals, rather than the reality
that a human is embedded in a network of relationships in a particular place.

The irony is that, despite placing the
individual at the center of its schema, capitalism actually downplays the personal in economic life. But what
would happen if the personal were taken seriously in thinking about what and
how goods and services are produced, what we consume, where production takes
place, and such like? One commentator thinks, "we might be inclined to ask who
these people are [who are producing goods and services], under what conditions
do they work, and what are the environmental consequences of producing these
goods."[13] As he acknowledges, however, "in
general, capitalist societies do not encourage these types of questions."[14] In contrast, a Christian perspective on
economic life does.

Table 1: Capitalism and a Christian
Understanding of Economic Life

Capitalism

A
Christian View

Fundamental orientation to the world

Scarcity

Plenitude

Assumptions about
the human person

Autonomous
individual

Motivated by
self-interest to fulfill unlimited wants

Finds fulfillment
in (material) consumption and leisure

Interdependent
person

Motivated by
self-interest and benevolence to fulfill the limited needs and wants of
oneself and others

Finds fulfillment
in relationships (friendship): with God, other persons, and the rest of
creation

A collection of
individuals who voluntarily agree to enter into a social contract with one
another

Social, economic,
and political institutions are designed to maximize the consumption of goods
and leisure. Maximizing economic growth becomes the overriding societal goal

A creation
reality: humans are embedded within societies. The human person cannot be
understood apart from society, and vice versa. Human societies (and,
therefore, the human person) are embedded in particular places and have
unique histories and traditions

Societal
institutions are designed to promote social, economic and political 'goods'
that contribute to enhanced relationships

Societal values

Freedom from others

Competition

Mobility and the
global

Material Wealth

Freedom for
others

Competition and
cooperation

Rootedness and
the local

Well-being

This sketch of a Christian
vision for economic life remains at a general level. It provides a high-level critique
of the way capitalism understands the human person and society and suggests a
basic orientation for thinking about economic life. It still leaves many
detailed questions unanswered. The remaining two articles consider how this
Christian vision might address two questions of particular importance: i) what
role should markets play? and ii) what are the implications of this Christian
vision for business?

The author recognizes there is debate as to what should be considered human
necessities. Although there is insufficient space to discuss this issue, the
author is in basic agreement with Catholic social thought that "every man (sic passim) has the right to the goods
that ensure his subsistence and the subsistence of his family," and that
subsistence means "something more than what is needed to eat and be clothed." Marcelo
Sanchez Sorondo, "For a Catholic Vision of the Economy," Journal of Markets
and Morality 6, no. 1 (2003): 11.